You can trust me
by MccullersStratford
Summary: Can Emily really trust Paige?... set after 3x24 - after the fire and after Emily saw Shana at the Cavanagh house.
1. Chapter 1

**The first couple of chapters will primarily be based around Paige and Shana but this is pretty much going to be a Paily fic. Plus, I didn't want to put Paige and Shana as the two characters because Shana needs to leave…**

"Em? Are you awake?" Paige had decided to spend the next few nights at Emily's after the fire. Emily was strong but the fire had left her worried and vulnerable.

"Em?" Emily didn't respond. Paige wanted to make sure she was sleeping before she left. Considering the four girls had been fighting an anonymous person for the last few years, Paige wouldn't stand a chance hiding from an alarmed Emily.

Paige got up from the bed where Emily was sleeping, careful not to wake her. She grabbed her boots and jacket and headed out the house, careful not to wake anyone.

As she shut the front door behind her she felt a crippling rush of guilt hit her. Emily needed her and she wanted to be there for her. Nothing mattered to her more than Emily, but right now she had to put her love for Emily to one side. As she put on her boots and jacket Paige's phone began to vibrate. She walked away from Emily's house to the road before answering it.

"Paige? We need to talk…" the voice explained down the cell phone.

"I know!" Paige hung up the phone angrily, she was close to being found out and the last thing she wanted was Emily knowing.

Paige walked to the house a couple of blocks away from Emily's. She had a lot of thoughts rushing through her head; she had a habit of over thinking in these situations, _why was she doing this to Emily? She promised Emily she'd protect her. What if she gets found out, she'll lose her for good. Is this all really worth it?_

After over thinking for the whole walk there, Paige walked up to the front door of the house. Taking a deep breath she walked in. Paige walked in through the living room to find the girls there.

The room was dark, they couldn't put any lights on at risk of being seen. The only light in the room was from the street lights in front of the house.

"Do you wanna tell me exactly where you went wrong? Because Emily isn't going to tell me anytime soon, is she?!" Paige walked over to the window looking out from the living room, checking to make sure no one was watching them.

"Look, Paige, we're sorry… we just… we didn't see her." Paige turned from the window, sitting on the couch in front of the two of them.

"Well, now she suspects something. And if she's suspecting you, Shana, she'll start suspecting me." Paige was careful and didn't joke around when it came to this, she had far too much to lose, she had to be careful.

"Paige, it was an accident. It won't happen again." Jenna interrupted, defending Shana.

"It won't happen again? Didn't you say that after you warned Emily about me? What was it you said, be very careful who you spend time with? Don't think I won't bite back Jenna." The way Paige stared at Jenna made her uncomfortable. "Lucky for you, Emily thought you were talking about Nate… or Lyndon or whoever he was…"

Paige turned to look at Shana, "so, you wanna tell me what happened?"

"I don't know, we were meeting at the Cavanagh house, she must've seen us while she was jogging or something." Paige sighed, leaning back into the couch. They couldn't mess up like this, Paige had the most to lose out of all of them and she couldn't lose, she couldn't be found out. They had to keep their heads down.

"Emily isn't stupid, if we keep messing up like this she'll figure it out in no time." Paige explained to the girls.

"So where is Emily now?" Jenna asked as if she were trying to catch Paige out.

"She's asleep…" Paige replied confidently.

"Are you sure?" Jenna smiled, pointing at Paige's cell that was sitting on the table in between them.

Paige grabbed her phone and walked into the next room before answering it. "Hey babe."

"Hey, where are you? I woke up and you were gone." Emily sounded concerned down the phone.

"Sorry, I needed a walk. I was going to get back before you woke up, I didn't want to leave you for too long." Paige replied convincingly. She hated herself for lying to Emily like this but she had no choice.

"You needed to go for a walk at 3am?" Emily's concern grew in her tone of voice.

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep and I couldn't stop thinking about what happened to you… I had to walk it off. I'm on my way back."

"Okay, don't be long." Emily said reassuringly before handing up.

Paige waited to make sure Emily had definitely hung up before walking back into the living room where the girls were still sat, waiting.

"I have to go. We'll finish this tonight…just keep your heads down."

Jenna followed Paige out of the front door of Shana's house, walking in different direction and watching their backs. Shana locked the door behind them.

Paige jogged back to Emily's house not wanting to keep Emily's suspicions up. She walked through the front door trying to be as quiet as she could knowing that Emily's mom was still asleep upstairs. She walked up to Emily's room where Emily was lying in bed half asleep, Paige took off her boots and jacked and climbed into bed with her.

"Paige?" Emily asked quietly, half asleep.

"Yeah, I'm here" Paige replied putting her arm around her, "I won't leave you again."


	2. Chapter 2

**I feel like a lot** **of you were hoping that I was going to make Paige the good guy and all the lesbians in Rosewood were helping her to protect Emily. Sorry to disappoint, that's not where this is going**.

"So, where did you go last night?" Emily asked Paige as they were walking to their lockers. Emily was still concerned about Paige. She knew she was having trouble with everything that had happened to the two of them recently and Emily felt guilty that she needed Paige there, to support her and look after her since the fire. She didn't want Paige to feel broken or alone.

"Just for a walk, nowhere in particular. Stop worrying." Paige smiled sensing Emily's concern and worry. Paige found Emily's question reassuring, she was worried that Emily may have suspected something but her concern made it clear that she didn't know.

"I'm sorry… I just… I care about you." Emily smiled at Paige before reaching their lockers. Spencer, Aria and Hanna were stood by Emily's locker waiting for her as they did pretty much every day. The four of them had English every morning so they often used it as an excuse to gossip and bitch.

"Hey guys." Hanna grinned at Paige and Emily.

"Hey Hanna, how you doing?" Paige replied smiling. She was still happy that Emily's friends had finally accepted her.

"Great, Caleb's coming back tonight so we need to make up for lost time…"

"Okay, come on Han." Emily rolled her eyes and laughed to herself, signalling for the girls to walk to their English class. "I'll see you later, Paige"

As the girls turned the corner, out of sight, Paige walked the opposite way back to the girl's toilets.

"Where is she?" Jenna asked from the other side of the empty toilets.

"She went to English with the others." Paige replied, leaning against the door making sure no one was going to walk it. With it being first period it was unlikely that anyone was going to disturb them anyway.

"Did she say anything about last night?" Shana asked

"No, she was just concerned about me."

"Feeling guilty yet then?" Jenna replied.

Paige felt guilty about this whole situation. Emily's best friends had finally decided to trust her and Emily was so naive and ignorant to the idea that Paige could betray her.

Jenna was getting bored with Paige's lack of reply. "You know… you keep saying you want to protect Emily but you wouldn't be doing this if really wanted to protect her, would you?"

Paige stared at Jenna angrily. She couldn't accept the idea that people would think that she didn't want to protect Emily.

"I have to… You don't get it." Paige said looking to the floor. She did feel ashamed of herself for doing this but it was too late to turn back.

"Why exactly did you agree to this then? You can't keep calling me a bad person when you're doing the same, Jenna" Paige was losing her patience now.

"Same reason as you" Jenna replied walking towards Paige who was still leaning against the door. "The difference is, I'm not breaking anyone's heart by doing this, unlike you...You said we'd talk tonight" she pushed passed Paige, walking out of the toilets.

Shana looked up at Paige, "what's the reason the two of you are doing this?"

"Alison. She made our lives hell, I wanted to get my revenge and Jenna agreed. Why are doing this? You never even knew Alison"

"For Jenna." Shana replied.

Paige walked over to the other end of the toilets closer to Shnna, forgetting about possibility of someone walking in.

"What's the deal with you and Jenna?" Paige asked, leaning against the sink next to Shana genuinely curious about their relationship.

"What's the deal with you and Emily?" Shana replied.

Paige wasn't expecting this question and she didn't know where Shana was going with this but she knew her enough to grow a little worried.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, do you love her?"

"Yes…" Paige's curiosity was growing, she had no idea why Shana would ask her this.

"Then why not tell her. Jenna told me and it just made us closer."

"It's not that simple, Emily would kill me." Paige replied feeling somewhat ashamed of herself for hiding something like this from Emily.

"If you love her, you should be honest with her…" Shana was beginning to grow concerned, questioning Paige's honesty and commitment.

"Like I said it's not that simple." Paige replied getting slightly annoyed with Shana's interrogation.

"I think it is pretty simple, I think you're hiding something." Shana folded her arms and stared at Paige, waiting for her to respond.

Before Paige had a chance to react to Shana's statement the door to the toilets opened abruptly.

"Oh… sorry, I wasn't expecting anyone to be in here." Hanna looked at Paige disconcertingly, curious as to why she was in the toilets with Shana. What are you guys doing here?" Hanna continued.

"We're just… just talking about the swim meet this afternoon. You know, Shana's joining the team." Paige replied trying not to sound suspicious.

"In the toilets?" Hanna asked.

"Yeah well, I just bumped into Shana on my way to the toilet and thought it'd be a good time to talk about it." Paige smiled, confident that her response was convincing enough to get Hanna off their backs

"Oh, okay." Hanna was still suspicious though she didn't let it show.

"Yeah, well we better be getting back to class. See you later Han." Paige smiled at Hanna as she left the toilets, closely followed by Shana. They both headed in opposite directions down the hallway. First period was almost over so Paige walked straight to her Spanish class.

Even though she was confident that she sounded convincing enough to reassure Hanna that nothing was going on between Shana and her, Paige was still worried. It wouldn't be the first time that Hanna consulted Emily about her suspicions of the two of them.

Paige bumped into Jenna in the empty hallway on her way to second period.

"I can't be seen with you." Paige whispered, looking around to make sure no one could see them.

"Give it a rest Paige. It would be more suspicious to completely ignore each other. I found this in my locker." Jenna handed Paige a small card.

"Did you see who it was?" Paige asked, examining the card.

"If I did, do you think I'd be here talking to you about it?"

The bell rang, signalling for the end of first period.

"We'll talk about it tonight. Shana's house, midnight" Paige said, putting the card in her back pocket as she continued to walk to her Spanish class.


	3. Chapter 3

Paige sat through Spanish, continuously examining the card Jenna found in her locker, unable to pay attention to her surroundings. She always dreaded these messages; the consequences that came with them were never pleasant.

She read the message on the card over and over again,_ 'If you're not more careful it won't just be Emily that needs protecting –A'. _Since she agreed to this she knew A would attempt to use Emily against her.

Paige never intended to fall in love with Emily; she just needed someone who was close to Alison to get close to. It could have been any one of the girls. Though when Emily came out it made Paige's decision easier, she figured that if she could use either her own or Emily's sexuality to befriend her, she would. The only problem was Paige fell in love with Emily from the beginning of her mission, and Alison was more than aware of her love for Emily.

Since the letters Paige wrote to Emily after Alison was pretending to be Emily, Paige needed to get her revenge. When Alison 'died' Paige felt like she couldn't get her revenge. But a text message from A changed all that, finding out Alison was alive and vulnerable was the best news Paige had heard, she could finally team up with other people Alison destroyed the lives of and repay the favour.

Though it did kill Paige to think that she was hurting Emily by using her and lying to her constantly just so she could get back at Alison. This wasn't Paige's intention but it was too late now, she was already in love with Emily and she would lose too much if she turned back now.

The bell rang, signalling the end of second period and waking Paige from her over-thinking and day dreaming. Paige left her class and walked to her locker, keeping her head down, not in the frame of mind to have a civilised conversation with anyone.

Walking down the hallway around the corner from her locker, Paige heard Emily's voice,

"Han, you've got it wrong again…" Paige stopped on the corner to listen to Emily and Hanna's conversation.

"Yeah, I was wrong once, but this time there was seriously something weird going on. I mean they were both in the bathroom, alone, during a first period…"

"Han…"

"…where they wouldn't be disturbed…"

"Han..."

"…and they stopped talking as soon as I…"

"HANNA!"

Paige didn't know how to feel listening to this conversation. Here Emily was defending her, ignorant to her best friend's allegations whilst Paige was lying and using and manipulating her. It felt wrong, Paige knew it was wrong, but she seemed to be able to provide herself with a rational excuse every time she thought about how horrible a person she was for doing this.

"Look, Em, you know I love you and sure I was wrong before but this time I'm sure something's not right. Just promise me you'll be careful." Hanna really cared about Emily and even if Emily wouldn't listen, she knew that the other girls would.

"Fine. I promise. Can we talk about something else now?" Emily's impatience with the conversation put Paige at ease, it was clear that she was refusing to believe Paige would do anything to betray her. Though she felt guilty for lying, Paige was happy that Emily didn't seem to be on to her.

Paige turned back and walked the opposite way down the hall, she didn't want any confrontation and she knew that if she bumped into Hanna that's exactly what she'd get.

She continued down the hallway until she reached the girls locker room. The swim meet wasn't for another hour but Paige knew she wouldn't bump into Hanna here and it could be a good place to gather her thoughts.

She sat on the bench in front of her locker and just waited. She liked being alone, it was the only time she felt like she could be herself considering she had lie a lot to Emily and with Shana and Jenna she had to act dominant, they wouldn't listen to her otherwise. It was easy for Paige to kill hours of time just sitting alone with her own company, her thoughts always kept her mind at work and caused her to over think and drift off into a world of her own.

She began thinking about Alison and what she made her do. Pretending to be Emily and making Paige write those letters, the name calling and the blackmailing. Paige ran her hand over her thigh remembering what Alison caused her to do. Many of the scars were still there though most of them had faded. It's a shame the memories couldn't fade away like the scars.

Paige thought about what she was doing, trying to get her revenge. She considered whether or not it could be justified or if it made her just as bad as Alison. She thought about this a lot, constantly in fact, and these thoughts always left her feeling guilty.

Footsteps echoed through the empty locker room bringing Paige back to reality. She checked her watch to see if it could have been the coach or anyone of the swim team getting arriving early for the meet. Paige was confident there was at least twenty minutes until the meet; it was unlikely that anyone was going to get there this early.

"Paige? What are you doing here?" Paige didn't even have to look up, Emily's voice always managed to make the hair on Paige's arms stand up and run a chill through her body.

"I just wanted some time to myself…" Paige replied looking at her down at her feet. She didn't want Emily to keep worrying about her, it was nice to know she cared but the guilt was beginning to get too much.

"Why? Are you okay?" Emily sat on the bench beside Paige putting a hand on her thigh where Paige's hand had previously been. Paige finally looked up at Emily.

"Yeah, I'm fine" Paige smiled at Emily in an attempt to reassure her and put her worries at ease.

"Okay, do you want me to leave?" Emily asked, worried that she was bothering Paige.

"No. No, it's fine, honestly." Paige and Emily sat silently holding each other for some minutes. They always believed that their silence spoke more than any conversation. They admired each other's company, particularly in silence listening to each other's heartbeats, each other's breathing.

After a few minutes Emily's phone vibrated, a message from Hanna broke their embrace. She read it out loud, concerned about its implications. _'Why is Shana joining the swim team? xx'_

"Why would she think Shana would be joining the team?" Emily looked at Paige curiously. She didn't mean for it to seem as if she were blaming Paige but Paige was quick to defend herself despite no real accusations.

"I just needed to get Hanna off my back…" Emily's reaction made it obvious that she wasn't accusing Paige and that Paige had jumped to these conclusions far too quickly. As soon as the words left her mouth, Paige wanted nothing more than to just wake up from this nightmare.

"What do you mean you needed to get Han off your back?" Emily stood up from the bench where the two of them had been sat and just looked at Paige.

"She saw Shana and I in the toilets earlier, nothing was going on I just… panicked. I didn't know what to say to her." Paige shook her head and looked back down at her feet. Everything seemed to be going wrong, Paige was good at separating her business with Alison and her relationship with Emily but recently she started slipping up.

"How about just telling her the truth, Paige!" Paige hated it when Emily used that tone of voice.

"I can't!" Paige stood up from the bench to face Emily, staring her in the eyes.

"Why not?" Emily questioned, staring back, not allowing herself to ease off Paige.

"You don't get it" Paige slammed her eyes shut at her response. Really? That's the best she could come up with? If Emily didn't think she was guilty before she must by now.

"Then just tell me, Paige, maybe then I'll get it." Emily replied, giving Paige the benefit of the doubt.

"It's just… I mean… Hanna seems so quick to blame me, I didn't think she'd believe the truth…" Paige started, stepping away from Emily and breaking eye contact.

"And what's the truth?" Emily asked.

"Shana and Jenna are together…" Emily's face dropped, she clearly jumped to the assumption that, since she believed Jenna was on the A team, then Shanna must be, and if Shana was then where did that leave Paige?

"I saw them together… last night, on my walk. I was on my way to first period and Shana dragged me into the girl's toilets to ask me not to tell anyone. That's why I couldn't tell Hanna." Paige impressed herself with how convincing she sounded, she practically convinced herself. "But look, you can't tell anyone…" Paige added.

Emily had a rush of guilt hit her, "I'm sorry… for doubting you" Emily hugged Paige in an attempt to confirm her apology. "I'm just… I'm worried about you…" Emily continued, refusing to let go of Paige. She didn't often doubt or accuse Paige but with Toby being on the A team and Spencer being locked up in Radley just a few weeks ago, it seemed Emily had been trusting the wrong people.

"It's fine, Em. After everything you've been through I'm surprised you can trust anyone." Emily finally broke the hug as she heard people walking into the locker room.

"Can we talk about this later?" Paige nodded in response as the rest of the swim team filled the girl's locker room getting ready for the swim meet.


	4. Chapter 4

"I'm sorry for snapping at you today, I should have just listened…" Emily and Paige were sat on Emily's bed doing homework for the next day. They often spent a couple of hours straight after school to do work and spend time together.

Paige looked up from her History book to see Emily watching her.

"It's fine Em, honestly." Paige smiled.

"And you don't mind me going out tonight?"

"Of course not. I can't keep you locked up can I?" Paige laughed briefly at the thought that Emily always seemed to think she was bugging Paige.

"I guess not." Emily replied leaning over to kiss Paige.

Hanna had texted Emily a half an hour earlier to ask if the four of them wanted to meet at the cafe to talk about another A theory. Since Emily worked there she knew it was a safe place to talk about A and they didn't close until 1 am so it was convenient timing for the four of them.

"You can still stay here though if you want, while I'm out." Emily explained, in an attempt to reassure Paige.

"Actually I was thinking of going back to my place to get some stuff and maybe coming back a bit later."

"Oh okay, sure." Emily smiled and continued with her English work, not even thinking of questioning Paige.

As the two of them continued with their individual work, Paige's phone began to vibrate. '1 new message'.

Emily looked up from her book slightly to watch Paige's reaction as she read her text. Emily wanted to make sure it wasn't a text from A or anything nasty from Hanna but she didn't want to ask at risk of sounding over protective.

Though Emily didn't know it, Paige was aware that Emily watched her facial expression to determine the subject of the text, so Paige made sure she had a decent poker face each time she checked her phone.

She opened the message, 'Be careful. You never know who's watching. -A'.

Paige locked her phone and made sure she didn't react, she didn't want Emily to worry and question anything. Though the message did confuse Paige. She wasn't doing anything; she had nothing to hide, at least not yet. And who would be watching her? The two of them continued with their work in silence.

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"I'll be back later." Emily hugged Paige as she left to meet up with the girls at the cafe. It was only 9 pm and Paige wasn't supposed to meet up with Jenna and Shana for another 3 hours.

Paige remembered the text message she received from A a few hours before. This finally worried her, now she wasn't sure what Emily was doing and was worried that maybe she could be a target for A or maybe Emily was sharing her suspicions of Paige with the girls.

Paige couldn't think of anything other than following Emily, walking to the cafe and keeping an eye on them. It usually took around half an hour to walk from the house to the cafe and Emily drove so Paige wasn't likely to bump into her.

She left the house, explaining to Emily's mom that she was going to be back in a few hours, she just needed to see her parents.

On her walk Paige realise what she was doing. Was she actually following Emily now? This has to be new level of low, but she knew she couldn't sit there and wait for A to attack or for the girls to figure out what she's up to.

Half an hour of over thinking and self-hatred and Paige reached the cafe

From the other side of the street she saw Emily's car sat outside the cafe and though she couldn't see the girls she assumed they were inside the cafe discussing their theories.

Paige analysed her surroundings for over an hour, leaning against an empty building almost opposite the cafe There were no street lights near this building and Paige was confident that she couldn't be seen unless you really looked closely.

As Paige began to get bored of waiting for nothing and pretty much just killing time, she noticed a hooded figure walking towards Emily's car. Paige didn't move yet, she figured she'd get more answers if she waited than if she chased this person down the street. It was difficult to make out anything about the hooded person.

Paige watched them walk towards Emily's car and look around to make sure they weren't being watched. They placed a note under Emily's wiper blade and walked away. They appeared to completely disappear around the corner.

Paige waited for what felt like hours, but in reality was only a couple of minutes, before looking to make sure no one was watching her. She walked towards Emily's car as quickly as she could without looking suspicious. She grabbed the note without even looking at it and walked back to her dark corner, worried that Emily might walk out at any minute.

Leaning against the building again, Paige examined the note the hooded person left. It was a red piece of card similar to the one A left in Jenna's locker. It read 'Are you trusting the right people, Emily? –A' with Shana's address typed across the bottom of the card.

The girls didn't know where Shana lived; they only knew her from the costume shop.

Paige pulled out her phone and checked the time before calling Jenna. It was almost 11 pm.

"Jenna, are you busy? … Good, 'cause we have problem, Shana's house 15 minutes" Paige hung up and called Shana as she began to walk to Shana's house.

"Shana, are you busy? … We'll be there in 15 minutes." Paige turned back briefly to make sure she wasn't being watched or followed. Paige made her way to Shana's as quick as she could.

She walked through the front door and into the living room. Shana was sat on her sofa, curious as to what was happening, whilst Jenna was pacing the living room, ready to snap at Paige.

Paige and Jenna didn't have a great relationship; in fact they were at each other's throats constantly.

"What's the rush, you couldn't have waited an hour?" Jenna was clearly irritable though Paige wasn't sure why.

"No, it couldn't. Just look." Paige handed the note she found on Emily's car to Jenna.

"What's this?" Jenna asked, reading the note.

"Em's at the cafe with the others. I was just passing and I saw A put it under her wiper blades." Paige sat down on the couch next to Shana waiting for Jenna's response.

"Why is A against us? I thought we were working with them" Jenna passed the note back to Paige.

"That's not how it works; we're not all working as a team, Jenna. This isn't an 'I scratch your back, you scratch mine' situation." Paige looked at Shana who didn't seem to want to say anything. "Are you okay?" Paige asked Shana, concerned about her lack of input.

"Yeah… It's just… are you sure this is real?" Paige looked confused at Shana's question, not knowing where she was going with it.

"What do you mean?" Paige asked.

"Well, how do you know it wasn't a set up. You know, A puts the note there so you'll come running to us, and while the three of us are here A is putting the real note on Emily's car." Paige stood up from the couch and started pacing the room with Jenna. Paige hadn't thought of that, she was sure she wasn't seen, but then again A isn't stupid.

"Okay, so what now?" Paige sighed.

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**A/N: Thank****s** for the reviews guys, they're great to read... And Del, I love your review**s, I hope you continue reading :)****  
**


	5. Chapter 5

After much worrying and consideration for what Shana had suggested, Paige and Jenna left. Though Paige was terrified that Shana may be right; that A used these pictures as a way to get rid of her and plant something else for Emily to find she had to get back to Emily's before she started to suspect something.

It was getting late and Paige only told Emily that she was getting something from home, it would look suspicious I she took all night to walk home and back.

As she walked up to Emily's house, Paige noticed Emily's car parked outside. This was it. When she walked through the door everything could be normal, Emily may have no idea and Paige could calm down.

But on the other hand, everything could change. Emily may have found out everything.

As Paige grabbed the door handle to Emily's house she noticed that her palms were sweaty. She was so nervous and there was a chance everything would change from here.

Paige walked into the house and followed the stairs up to Emily's bedroom. As she walked into the room, she saw Emily lying on the bed reading. She didn't look particularly concerned. Paige was somewhat relived, everything seemed okay.

"Hey babe. You're back?" Paige asked calmly as she walked into the room and sat at the end of Emily's bed.

"Yeah. The others had to go and it was slow tonight so I locked up early." Emily replied smiling ad putting her book down next to her.

This reply was reassuring for Paige. Shana must have been wrong; the note that A left must have been the plan and not a way of getting rid of her.

"so where have you been?" Emily asked.

"I walked back to my place for a few things." Paige confirmed, smiling at Emily.

"Where is it?"

"Where is what?." Paige replied, the smile fading from her face.

"The stuff from your place?" Emily raised an eyebrow.

Paige had been panicking too much to realise the hole in her lie.

"No… my, my dad wasn't home… and I don't have my keys, I couldn't get in." Paige tried to sound as genuine as she could though that was difficult since she was worrying so much.

"Oh, okay." Emily picked up her book again and flicked to where her book was marked.

There was something about Emily's facial expression that worried Paige. She knew something was wrong; she was sure Emily knew something, she just had no idea what it was yet.

Emily pulled out the piece of card that she was using as a book mark. She examined the side Paige couldn't see for several seconds.

"Did you follow me to the cafe?" Emily asked, still watching her side of the card.

"What?" Paige's heart sank; she couldn't get out of this one. Whatever Emily had in her hands was the evidence she needed to accuse Paige.

Emily dropped the card, picture side up, on the bed in front of Paige and watched her as she examined it herself.

It was a polaroid picture of Paige stood against the wall of a building outside the café. The picture had the date and time on the bottom and there was a note from A at the bottom: _'Are you trusting the wrong people Emily? –A'._

Emily continued to watch Paige, waiting for her explanation for the picture.

"I just… I was worried about you." Paige looked down at her hands in an attempt to avoid making eye contact with Emily.

"I didn't tell you but I've been getting messages from A threatening to hurt you. I just needed to make sure you were okay."

"Why wouldn't you tell me A was sending you messages?" Emily asked, more curious than concerned.

Paige looked up at Emily for the first time since she was given the picture. Emily looked angry, and she made no attempt at hiding it, the only other time Paige had seen her like this was Emily found Hanna and Spencer searching through Paige's bag.

This look almost scared Paige. She never intended to make Emily this mad, she just always assumed Emily wouldn't find out about any of this, or that if she did Paige could talk her way out of it.

"I didn't want to worry you… I just-"

"You just what Paige? I thought I could trust you." Emily stood up from the bed and began slowly pacing her room.

"And you can…" Paige was becoming more aware of her lies and deceit. She almost wanted just sit there and admit everything that she had been doing for the last four years.

"I just didn't want you to get hurt again. I thought it would be safer to not tell you." Paige continued.

"Look Paige…" Emily stopped at the other end of her room by her window. She turned to look at Paige. "I don't know if I can do this. I just… I feel like there's something else. I don't know if I can trust you."

Paige stood up from the bottom of the bed and walked towards Emily who was still standing by the window.

This moment didn't feel real to her, Paige hadn't ever anticipated this happening. At the start of their relationship Paige was convinced Emily wouldn't stay with her or that she was only with her out of pity. But this, the lack of trust; all Paige wanted was to get back at Ali, and by doing so she had to be on the 'A team', she never intended to hurt Emily. The deceit and lies were necessary.

Paige and Emily stood face to face, looking each other in the eye. Paige grabbed Emily's hands and kissed her. Their lips touched for just a moment before Emily pulled away. She didn't make eye contact with Paige this time and just looked at the floor.

"I really am sorry, Em. I never wanted you to feel like this. I love you."

"I think you should go." Emily pulled her hands away from Paige's and turned to face out of her window, wiping the tears from her face.

Paige hated the realisation that she could do this to Emily. She stood there for a few seconds, trying to come to terms with what had just happened. She turned to walk out of Emily's bedroom.

Without looking back, Paige made it to the road in front of Emily's house before breaking down. Her tears continued to stream down her face as she walked back to her house.

Walking into her house she attempted to compose herself. She walked up to her bedroom and wiped her face. She took a few deep breaths before dialing Jenna's number.

_"What happened?"_ Jenna knew something went wrong. She was sure Shana was right about A, she was just waiting for Paige to call and explain what happened with Emily.

"We're doing this properly now. We get A, we get Allison and then we're done with this." Paige hung up before Jenna had a chance to reply.

Paige knew she wouldn't be able to sleep but she climbed into bed anyway.

She started thinking about how much she had lost because of A. She had nothing more to lose and that made her dangerous. Paige no longer cared about getting caught, she didn't need to hide or be subtle. All she wanted was for Emily to be safe and to get her revenge.

Paige lied in bed for several hours with her eyes open, examining her bedroom ceiling.

Her cell phone vibrated on her bed next to her. She opened the message: _'How much more are you willing to lose, Paige? –A'_


End file.
